H
God is happy to operate in us "both the willing and the working for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13); the Christian life with the supply of the Body life (1:19) is a happy life; our inward joy is an indication that we are living and walking according to God's good pleasure; since the book of Philippians, written by Paul in prison (v. 13; 4:22), is concerned with the experience and enjoyment of Christ, which issue in joy, it is a book filled with joy and rejoicing (1:4, 18, 25; 2:2, 17-18, 28-29; 3:1; 4:1, 4).
I
God is happy to have a man of God (Psa. 90, title; Deut. 33:1; Ezra 3:2) who lives God and lives out God in order to gain God by being one with God (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 6:11-12; Phil. 3:8, 14); Jesus of Nazareth is the standard pattern of a man of God who lived out God (John 6:57; 5:19, 30; 10:30); the Lord said that He did not come to do His own will or to seek His own glory (5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:18); when we take Christ as our crucified life for His manifestation as the resurrection life, we will experience Him as the indwelling and enabling power of resurrection to deny our will and our glory (Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 4:5-7; Rom. 14:7-9).
J
God is happy when we eat Christ as our spiritual food in order to live because of Him (John 6:57); to eat Christ is to eat His words by exercising our spirit to both pray-read and muse upon His words so that His words become the gladness and joy of our heart (Jer. 15:16; Psa. 119:15-16; Josh. 1:8-9); to live because of Christ means that the energizing element of Christ becomes the supplying factor for us to live Christ.
K
God is happy when we are daily strengthened into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith; our inner man is our regenerated spirit, which has God's life as its life (Eph. 3:16-17; John 3:6b; Rom. 8:10).
L
God is happy when we remain in our spirit and pay attention to our spirit (v. 6b); when the Lord says, "Abide in Me" (John 15:4), this wonderful "Me" is in our spirit, and when we are in Him by being in our spirit, in us the ruler of this world has nothing—no ground, no chance, no hope, and no possibility in anything (14:30; cf. 12:31-32).
M
God is happy when we serve Him as a slave by living in the reality of the kingdom of God in the way of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit; this is well pleasing to God and approved by men, and it preserves the oneness of the church for the practical Body life—Rom. 14:17-18.
Morning Nourishment
Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.John 15:4 Abide in Me and I in you…
Rom. 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
It is beyond our ability to lay aside our will and our glory, however willing we may think we are. Such a life can be lived only in resurrection. The Lord Himself is the resurrection (John 11:25). Only in Him can we have a life under the cross.
The Father’s pleasure is that we fall into the earth and die, that is, that we live a crucified life. When we die, the inner power of life will be energized. Death ushers in the resurrection power. “Lord, open my eyes to see that my will and my glory have to be put aside. Then show me that You are the resurrection power within me. I praise You that I am not a lifeless stone. I am a grain of wheat. Within me You are the resurrection power. Lord, give me the vision that if I die, You live. I am here before You.” The Lord will work in us the willingness. It does not come from ourselves. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 2, “Life Messages, Volume 1,” pp. 429-430)
Today’s Reading
Our soul is the natural man. Our spirit, regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is the inner man. It is this second person, the inner man, that is the object of God’s good pleasure. In actuality, this person is Jesus Christ, mingled with you….The person in your soul is offensive and displeasing to God, but the One in your spirit is a sweet fragrance to Him.God wants us to be persons in the spirit. The soul’s use is as an organ; it is not to be our person. Many, many times in the course of the day, however, we travel back and forth from spirit to soul and from soul to spirit. Ask the Lord to help you practice. “Lord, thank You that I have a new person. I am not that old man. My regenerated spirit, indwelt by You, is my new person. Help me to walk, live, act, and speak in the spirit, no longer in the soul. I want to live by the inner man.”
[The Father’s] good pleasure is that we be strengthened into the inner man according to the riches of His glory. Morality and ethical virtue cannot compare with the expression of the divine life through us. It is not a matter of staying away from department stores or from places of worldly entertainment because we do not love the world anymore. That attitude is too shallow. What we do is the outcome of our being strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.
The Lord’s recovery is not for doctrines or for outward practices. It is for the experience of being strengthened into our inner man, that Christ may occupy our whole being until eventually we are filled with God unto His full expression…. Pray, “Father, thank You for my regenerated spirit where Christ dwells. Do strengthen me according to the riches of Your glory, through Your powerful Spirit, into my inner man. Spread out from my spirit and settle also in my heart. Make Your home in my whole inward being, that I may be filled with You, unto Your full expression.”
May the Father strengthen us all into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in our hearts, and that we may be built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit. This is His good pleasure. Whatever confronts us—things great or small, good or bad, right or wrong—we need to be in our spirit….This wonderful “Me” is right in our spirit. We must abide in Him [cf. John 15:4]. Stay there. If you have moved out, move back in. God is happy when He sees that we remain in our spirit. Our spirit is our hope. It is our home. It is our country. There is no place else that we should be. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 2, “Life Messages, Volume 1,” pp. 450-451, 453-455, 446-447)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “The Divine Economy,” ch. 1; CWWN, vol. 62, chs. 23, 30